Naar Amsterdamhttps://blogit.jamk.fi/naaramsterdam
On exchange in AmsterdamSun, 12 May 2019 19:30:02 +0000en-GB
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.1De Tijd Vliegthttps://blogit.jamk.fi/naaramsterdam/2019/05/12/de-tijd-vliegt/
https://blogit.jamk.fi/naaramsterdam/2019/05/12/de-tijd-vliegt/#respondSun, 12 May 2019 19:30:02 +0000https://blogit.jamk.fi/naaramsterdam/?p=82As the saying goes, time does really fly, and it’s hard to imagine that there’s only about 7 weeks left of my exchange semester. It has also been a while again, since I’ve posted anything, so it’s a good time for an update. I’d rather not write a report, which I’ll have to do unless my blog is sufficient. And there’s also a valid reason, why I haven’t posted anything for a while, so let’s get over with the bad news first.

An Exhausting Month

Why does it feel like someone is strangling me…

Last month, I noticed I was feeling tired all the time and exhausted no matter how much I sleep. I already felt that way on a smaller scale a few weeks earlie, but last month I could really tell something was wrong. My emotions varied from anxiety to sadness and irritation and every obstacle I faced seemed larger than they actually were. Also I felt like I didn’t get satisfaction from the moments and things I normally would and even my concentration seemed to be off and my thoughts wondered a lot. In a nutshell, I was stressing out a lot, but couldn’t really pinpoint the reason…

There are plenty of things in life that could cause these symptoms, for example work overload or even a bad diet, just to name a few. While I admit the latter hasn’t been exactly optimal, the emotional rollercoaster got me thinking that there had to be other reason as well. After all, I should be having the time of my life right now, and frankly, everything is going great. I love the city and the country, I have made new friends and met a lot of super-friendly people and had a great time overall.

Because of my position of an exchange tutor during the last semester, I’m familiar with the concept of cultural adjustment and the effects of culture shock, which I apparently went through. It seems a little bit odd and recognizing the symptoms took some time, because I thought it was unlikely that I would experience a culture shock during my exchange. After all the culture here isn’t that far away from the culture of Finland.

In my mind culture shock meant the clash of cultural differences and the trouble of understanding and accepting the differences. The more different your culture is from culture of the country you are living in, the more likely you are to experience a culture shock. While all this may be true, the culture shock doesn’t really depend on how large the cultural differences are, but is more about the changes in live. And a change – even a positive one – is stressful and requires a lot of adjustment.

Culture shock affects different people in different ways. Some may start partying a lot trying to avoid their emotions, others isolate themselves from the outside world and of course some people don’t experience it at all. I think I’m something in between, but more of the isolate type. When you feel like shit about everything and especially about yourself and even the tiniest tasks require a huge amount of effort, you don’t really feel like socializing a lot. Of course I didn’t just stay in home all the time and I had good days as well. But still, most of the time everything felt at least 10-times more exhausting and waking up seemed to be one of the most difficult tasks in the world.

I’m happy to tell, that by the end of April I was (and still am) feeling much better and everyday life feels normal. There were several thing that helped me get through. First of all, realizing the cause of the symptoms and knowing it will pass was a big relief. Instead blaming myself for being so down and not getting anything done, I now understood the reasons for it and simply started being nicer to myself. Secondly talking about the feelings with my friends helped. This of course is not surprising, but if you are anything like me, talking about your feelings is easier said than done. The last thing I did, was to start focusing and enjoying the small things I still could do instead focusing on the things I was failing at or couldn’t get done.

The u-curve you’ll usually see when talking about culture shock

It’s good to point out, that although I’m feeling better now, the bad feelings may still come up occasionally. Cultural adjustment is often described with the so called curve-model. First you have the honeymoon phase when everything feels great and so much better than back home. After that things start to slowly go down and you hit the transition period with the culture shock and after hitting the rock-bottom you begin steadily recover and finally adapt to your new surroundings. The phases make sense, but the curve is just too simple and linear. Most people will experience ups and downs all the way during the adjustment and the shock symptoms may come back at any given moment. Also, not everyone experiences the honeymoon phase. We’ll see how things will go from now on in my case, but at least now I’m better prepared if the shock decides to strike again. And honestly, at the moment I’m doing just fine so there’s nothing to worry about.

And then to other news…

While May day isn’t celebrated in the Netherlands, around the same time on 27th of April there is another great party called King’s Day (used to be Queen’s day, but now there’s a king so it’s King’s day). If you are ever coming to Amsterdam, I’d say come in April to see the day. There’s music everywhere, the streets are super crowded and everyone is on a good mood and wears something orange (color of the royal family). It is definitely one of the best festivals I’ve ever been at and I’m considering coming back next year as well.

People celebrating the King’s Day

Some fanboy with Sam Hales from the Jungle Giants

I’m pretty sure there would have been just as big party here, if Ajax had won the UEFA Champions League, but unfortunately they lost in semi-finals when Tottenham Hotspur scored in the last minute of the overtime… Such a bad luck for such a good team. Anyway, they played a great tournament so the players can definitely be proud of themselves. And talking about Ajax, I recently visited the their home stadium called Johan Cruijff arena, which was a sight to see (check out the header image of this post).

There have been so many great moments and experiences that writing about all of them would require a few blog posts more. For example I’ve got to see some great live music (including my favorite indie rock band the Jungle Giants) and visited the beautiful city of Haarlem. So like I said, although there were some exhausting times, there has been very good days as well and I’m sure there’s still many great days to come before the semester ends.

Until next time, cheers!

Molen De Adriaan, Haarlem
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Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:15:42 +0000https://blogit.jamk.fi/naaramsterdam/?p=43Now it has been little over one month, since I moved to Amsterdam and I’m starting to settle down to my new home. The city is starting to feel smaller and I can even understand and have some very basic conversations in Dutch! Though, I can’t claim yet to be a real Amsterdamer, I’m starting to recognise some habits picked up from the locals such as being pissed of at the dommetoeristen walking on the bike lanes. And it’s not even the tourist season yet.

A lot has happened during the first month, which is also why I haven’t had time to update my blog. Also studying here seems to be a lot more time-consuming, difficult and deadlines are tighter than what I’ve used to at JAMK. This is partly due to the faculty of CMD (Communication and multimedia design) I’m studying in, which local students say to be more difficult than most fields in the university of applied sciences of Amsterdam, but I have feeling any study field would be harder than I’m used to. Bad thing about this is that I don’t have as much time to explore Netherlands and Amsterdam as I had hoped, but the good part is that going back to study at JAMK should feel like a vacation after this. And so far, I have had time for exploring too.

Visiting Leiden with friends. Gezellig!

Introduction Week

A very bad selfie with some new friends from Hong Kong

The arrival week was full of programme organised by the International Student Network (ISN) including canal cruise, dance workshop, parties and other fun activities. Since there are hundreds of exchange students in Amsterdam, we participated in the activities in smaller groups, which also made it easier to get to know new people. All groups were mixed with different nationalities and students from different fields. I’ll probably stay in touch with most of my group mates even after the erasmus is over.

The introduction week was a lot of fun and also very useful, because we learned basic stuff related to eramus life, school system and Dutch culture and language. Also a funny thing about the introduction week was that most student had to pay for participating, but for some reason I didn’t need to. And naturally, I didn’t mind.

Kicking off the semester with trip to London

A typical London weather

Birthday boy and the cake

After the introduction week, our minor of User experience design began with an awesome trip to London. Related to our studies, we did have a few company and museum visits and also small assignments during the trip. However, most of the time we were free to explore London and to get to know each other. I also got to celebrate my 27th birthday in London, which was an experience itself. I even got a surprise birthday cake!

Excluding the 2 days spent travelling, we had 3 days time to enjoy London. For such a massive city 3 days is definitely not enough to see everything. I mean, London is really, really big! And really, really expensive… Anyway, it was worth very penny I can highly recommend visiting there

If you are interested reading more about the trip to London and about my studies and projects of the UXD minor, check out my Dropbox Paper -document

A few tips and thoughts

Instead of going through every day of the past month, I’ll end of this blog post by sharing some tips and thoughts of of erasmus and everyday life in Amsterdam. Some may be obvious, but hopefully at least a little helpful for future JAMK students or anyone else heading to Amsterdam.

Bicycles

As people familiar with the Netherlands know, going by bicycle is the way to travel here. Public transportation is pretty good, but not as cheap as one would hope. Furthermore, especially later in the evening there are not many options for public transportation and getting home may take a lot longer than it would by bicycle. Also by biking, you’ll get free exercise and see more of the city and get to ring your bell to anyone who might get on your way. A lot of fun! Sounds great, right?

You wouldn’t get to enjoy this sunset on a metro or bus

Don’t stay just in central Amsterdam

Enjoying a sunny day in Amsterdam-Noord

Most tourists visiting Amsterdam don’t go out of the central area, which is a shame. With all the old buildings, canals, museums, smell of weed and crazy clubs, the central Amsterdam is of course a beautiful place to visit, but to see the real Amsterdam one should also get out of the center.

Amsterdam isn’t a huge city, so you can easily explore it by bicycle and you’ll find different landscapes, beautiful parks, very imaginative cafés, pubs and restaurants etc. You can also take a free ferry to the Amsterdam-Noord, which is definitely worth to visit.

Insurance

This is probably obvious, but make sure to have a good insurance with wide coverage for the whole semester. I chose the student insurance, like most erasmus students do, but if I could choose differently I would go with a Finnish insurance company.

Oh f’**k!

I managed to accidentally break my phone, the repair costs were 299€ and I’ve been waiting for over two weeks for an answer from the insurance company. Also the claim submit process was quite lengthy and not the easiest to fill and I got confirmation email of the claim in French. Not a good user experience at all… From my previous experiences with Finnish insurance companies, I dare to say that a Finnish company would have processed the claim most likely in 1 day and the money would have been on my account the day after.

Taxes, Rent and Prices

As resident of any Dutch municipality, you’ll probably receive a tax bill of some kind. The amount of taxes can be surprisingly high, for example in my case around 250€. However, most students don’t have a high income, which means usually you do NOT have to pay the taxes as long as you request a remission.

Related to the low income of students, you may also be eligible for local rent allowance, if you life in a private apartment with private facilities. For example I’ll pay rent ~590€ / month and receive 188€ / month rent allowance, thanks to which my I actually have to pay less rent than residents of my building living in apartments with shared facilities.

Last but not least, few sentences on the prices. The Netherlands isn’t a cheap country, and for example compared to Germany, prices are higher. Besides maybe alcohol, the price level is pretty much the same as in Finland, so prepare your budget for that.

To my surprise, I actually had a good-night-sleep in the egg. What was so surprising about it, was the fact that the sleep-egg-thingy felt more like a fake leather couch and also the excitement of tomorrow’s departure should have affected my sleep. Maybe the sleeping egg was better than I thought…

Well, honestly it exceeded my expectations, but still I think it was slightly overpriced (still cheaper than most hostels and hotels) and comparable to sleeping on a couch. I didn’t get a bed sheet, the cushions felt quite hard and so did the pillow. Also the blanket wasn’t very thick, and although I didn’t feel too cold, I’m sure some people would. Furthermore, if you are very tall person, I doubt you can fit in the egg. However, I must admit that the overall experience was pleasant.

The staff of the GoSleep -lounge was very friendly, and the guy who was at the desk when I arrived had probably the calmest, and most relaxing voice I’ve ever heard (ASMR-people would definitely love him). With the lid closed, I got enough privacy and thanks to the design, the lid didn’t interruppt the airflow. Free ear plugs were a welcome addition and helped sleeping, since airports often aren’t the most quiet places you can find. There was also a wake-up service included in the price, but I did set-up an alarm just in case. The current eggs didn’t have any light inside for reading books etc, but when I gave feedback about it, I was told there will be a light in the next generation eggs. The concept was only 3 months old, so the eggs should improve in the future. In a nutshell I got what I paid for – a good night sleep and an easy access to my morning flight. I can also see a lot of potential for the future eggs and liked the concept. Also, I’m pretty claustrophobic person, but I didn’t have any problems even with the lid closed.

The Arrival

Getting cleaned!

Flight was delayed about 30mins thanks to the snow and cold weather. I hadn’t been on flight during winter time, so I was surprised to hear that the flight would be delayed because of the required clensing of the plane. Apparently the crucial parts can easily freeze in snowy and cold weather and to prevent this a hot shower before the departure is required. With the water they also sprayed some red chemical on the plane, which oddly after a while, turned into a greenish color.

The university of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam University of Applied sciences organizes arrival days every semester, were student can easily get many tasks done at once. For example you can pick up your student card, register the municipality, book an appointment for opening a bank account and get goodie-bags with candies and very useful info. Also free rides from the aiport to the campus and from the campus to apartments is available on the arrival day.

This semester, the 30th of January was the day in question. That is why I, among most exchange students, selected it for the day of arriving to Amsterdam. At the airport there was a desk for arriving exchange students, where friendly people guided us to the right bus that would take us to the campus. At the campus everything was very well organized as well and in about an hour everything was done on my part. During the arrival day I also made my first new contacts – two Finns and two of my future neigbours at Maassluisstraat: a Swede and a Spaniard.

Lost and Confused

My apartment

The apartment was better than I expected and it also had almost everything I will need for the semester (even 2 wine glasses!). Pretty much the only think I’ll need to get is cleaning equipment and maybe some ear plugs, because there’s a construction site next door. Apparently there was a warning about it on the website of the housing company, but of course I totally missed it. Also the apartment lacks oven, which is a bummer.

So far everything had went well and I still didn’t really feel like being in a different country. However, when I went to the grocery store the reality finally hit me and I realised how difficult it’s actually to do the grocery shopping without understanding anything. I managed to find everything I needed, but still it was a slight shock and I felt quite stupid and confused and just wanted get out of the store as soon as possible.

God damn stupid machine why don’t you work?!

Later the day, there was more confusion with the OV-card, which is used in Nethlerlands for public transportation. To use it, you need to load credit on it and that was a little bit more difficult than expected. I couldn’t do it at local store without a local bank card and it wasn’t possible to do it on bus or tram either. Only way to load credit was at loading devices found on most metro station, so I went to closest station, but apparently the device didn’t work or I didn’t know how to use it… So again I felt stupid.

Luckily I was finally able to get to the city centre thanks to help of my Dutch friends, who I was going to meet there. They told me it’s possible to use the OV-card even without credit up to -4€, so I took the tram to central station of Amsterdam where we loaded credit on my card and this time the loading device co-operated nicely.

Gift from my friends.

We visited a cozy little pub in the centre and had a good time. I also got a tasty housewarming gift from my friends. So the ending of the day was great, and by now all the hassle with groceries, OV-card etc just made me laugh It also got me thinking that travelling with a friend would probably be much easier, but on the other hand getting through the obstacles by yourself is so much more rewarding.

]]>Ik ga naar Amsterdam part 1https://blogit.jamk.fi/naaramsterdam/2019/01/29/ik-ga-naar-amsterdam-part-1/
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 14:13:57 +0000https://blogit.jamk.fi/naaramsterdam/?p=9Right now I’m sitting on a train that takes me to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport to start the biggest adventure in my life so far – an exchange semester in Amsterdam. My flight will depart tomorrow morning, so I thought this would be a good time for the first blog entry.

My current feelings vary from excitement and nervousness to confusion. The exchange is actually happening now, but for some reason it still feels like my brains hasn’t realised it. I guess, when I actually arrive to Amsterdam the reality will finally hit me. Also I must admit I’m little worried how well my upcoming studies will go, especially since my Dutch friends gave me the impression that studying in the Netherlands is much harder than in Finland. I really hope that’s not the case. The grades don’t really matter that much, but naturally I’d like to get as good grades as possible and pass the courses with no problems. Anyhow, these feelings are probably totally normal in this situation, and overall I’m really looking forward for the semester and I’m sure everything will go just fine.

Since my flight will departure early in the morning, I have go the terminal area today to make it in time. Luckily it’s possible to do the check-in and drop the luggage day before, at least with Finnair’s morning flights. At first I planned to spend the night on the benches of the terminal, but then I found out that the Helsinki-Vantaa airport also has some special chairs / beds, the so called “sleeping eggs” (in the picture). With these I should get at least some privacy and sleep better, thanks to the blanket and pillow, which are included in the price. The eggs also have power socket. The price however, felt quite high, and for me one night costs about 40€. I still thinks it’s better option than to sleep on the cold and hard benches of the airport. And anyway, nothing is cheap at the airport…

I’ll write a short review of the night on the next part of this blog post, which should be published at some point after my arrival. So stay tuned and until then, cheers!

PS. A few words on the name of the blog, which is Naar Amsterdam = To Amsterdam. I admit it’s not the most creative name, but I couldn’t come up with anything better. There’s just a slight problem with it, because if I’ve understood correctly, the word naar also means sick or ill. So just to clear things up, the name doesn’t mean that I think Amsterdam is a sick or ill city, but just stating the fact I’m going there. And since no one will read this blog anyway, I guess the name doesn’t really matter.